Johnny Depp had always been controversial casting as the villainous Gellert Grindelwald, bringing a lot of unwanted bad press to the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and following a major court ruling going against him last fall, Warner Bros. went ahead and cut ties with the former Pirates of the Caribbean star. Soon after Depp’s firing, Hannibal actor Mads Mikkelsen was announced to be taking over the role of the series’ main antagonist for Fantastic Beasts 3.
Despite production being deep underway in the UK, however, we’ve yet to get a glimpse at Mikkelsen in character as Grindelwald. It’s up to fans to imagine how he could look, then, and digital artist Axel__Pc has mocked up a poster for FB3 which features the Danish star in the role. As you can see in the gallery below, the artist has kept some facets of Depp’s appearance, but also put a fresh spin on it.
As designed by Johnny himself and the makeup and costume team, Grindelwald has previously been portrayed with white-blonde hair, a mustache and heterochromia. The artist has retained the dark wizard’s bright blue right eye for Mikkelsen’s take on him but has also given him more natural silver hair and a scar on his eyebrow. Like Depp, Mikkelsen will no doubt contribute his own ideas to the character’s look, too, so this might not be far off the mark.
Mikkelsen has previously praised Depp’s performance as “masterful,” though he admitted he hadn’t spoken to his predecessor about replacing him. The Doctor Strange actor has revealed how he intends to tackle the role, though. “Ideally,” he said in an interview after his first week on the shoot, “the approach I can have is to connect the bridge between what he did and what I’m going to do, and we’ll see where it lands.”
After a few delays, Fantastic Beasts 3 is currently due to hit theaters on July 15th, 2022. Let us know your feelings about Mads Mikkelsen taking over as Grindelwald in the comments section below.
Published: Jan 27, 2021 03:03 pm